Ever tried to slip an iPhone into a pants pocket and run out of room with the device halfway in? Men are probably scratching their heads, but most women know the experience well.
A new study finds that the front pocket in women’s jeans average less than half the size of men’s. And that means less than half the brands studied can hold an iPhone X.
The study published in The Pudding measured the pocket sizes of 20 brands, including Levi’s, Old Navy, and Tommy Hilfiger. It found that an iPhone X would fit into just 40 percent of them.
But study authors Jan Diehm and Amber Thomas aren’t accusing Apple of making bulky devices. They point out that the iPhone X will fit in 100 percent of the front pockets in men’s jeans.
And the Samsung Galaxy S9 fits in even fewer women’s pockets: just 20 percent. It goes into virtually all men’s front pockets though.
The pockets sewn into women’s jeans are so small, an average-size woman can’t even put her hands in the offerings from 90 percent of brands. That’s not a problem for men.
The study authors aren’t chary about calling out how the sexes are treated differently. “For women, it was (and still is) about equality.”
Any pocket in a storm
The back pockets on jeans for the disparate genders are closer in size. “Men’s back pockets were a bit deeper but just about the same width as women’s,” said Diehm and Thomas. This likely explains why so many women carry their phone in the back pocket, despite the risk of sitting on it.
